Christmas in Summer

We're all set to celebrate Christmas in our home. It's going to be a VERY HOT weekend. The perils of having Christmas during Summer! At least it's not going to be as hot for us as it will be for my family who live in South Australia.

We have our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. It's been our tradition for several years now and stems from Mark's mothers side of the family, who are from the Netherlands.

Since it's going to be a really hot day and I am cooking a roast dinner. I didn't want to  use the oven so I have opted to cook Lamb Obsession (using a lamb roast) in my slow cooker. We've had this a few times using chops or lamb shanks & it's a big hit so I know this will go down well tonight.

Tomorrow will be even hotter. Getting close to the old century mark (100°F - 38°C) but I am hoping that the weather bureau got it wrong and it will be cooler. The wonderful plus side of living in the southern hemisphere when Christmas time rolls around. At least it isn't as bad as when I was a kid in Adelaide. I am sure we had temperatures around 45°C and we even went outside to play in the heat. Far out we must have been either mad or we didn't know any better?!

We've lots of cold drinks at the ready. If it remains hot for a long period of time I will need to put my Diabetes Hot Weather Plan into action. I probably should any way just to be on the safe side.

Anyway, I have to get things ready to go into the slow cooker for tonight. I am looking forward to dinner just not the hot weather that's been predicted for the next few days. Thank goodness it should be cooler by the end of next week. Something to look forward to.

Stay cool or warm depending on where you live. Merry Christmas!!

Finished Item - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 38

That's it. Complete. Other than the some of the ends need to be sewn in.

Mark convinced me to not pull the blanket apart to make two smaller blankets. He explained that with all of the hours and months worth of work it would be a shame to do so.

I made an arrangement with Angus for him to have the blanket to use on his bed. He was complaining how cold he has been. Considering he has a single bed it will fold nicely in half and be extra warm for him. I also explained that since I have used hundreds of dollars worth of yarn it will be his birthday and Christmas gift from me. I don't think he was too happy about that prospect.

All bunched up on the floor

There is so much purple. I know I love that colour but gee whiz I never though I would be using so much of it in this blanket.

I hate to admit it but I prefer then end with all the green and orange. It looks so much nicer and a lot more colourful. Which end do you prefer?

After 9 months of working on this baby I mentioned to Angus and Mark what project should I do now? Angus said how about another temperature blanket? Umm maybe not. If I did it would certainly be smaller than this one with more variations of colour for the temperature range.
For now I think I shall leave the temperature blanket alone and concentrate on something else.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 37

I am still thinking of pulling this blanket apart. 

Honestly there is enough yarn here to make two or three blankets.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 36

I am seriously considering pulling this blanket apart and making it half the size that it already is, in effect possibly making two blankets out of this yarn. I have use a lot of it.

The trouble is I was so good at the beginning of making this blanket that I was sewing the ends in as I went. It makes me wish I hadn't done that as it will make it very difficult to pull the yarn apart.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 35

Spring is officially here but I believe the weather has forgotten that it is allowed to warm up a little. Either that or winter just wants to pop up it's head again before disappearing!

At least we've had a few slightly warmer days this past week.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 34

Winter showed it's head this week. Thankfully spring begins at the end of next week. I am hoping to see some more green rows soon not. 

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 33

Lots of blue this week. Spring officially starts next month. 

Perhaps the super cold days will be seen less and less now.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 32

Still a lot of purple. Even though the weather has warmed up a little. It just hasn't warmed up enough for me to used another colour. 

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 31

Better late than never as far as posting this photo of my temperature blanket.

I didn't take the blanket with me when Brodie was in hospital last week. Mind you I did have a lot of time on my hands while he was an in-patient.

I spent about an hour or so last night catching up on last weeks rows.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 30

Quite a bit of dark purple this week. 

It's been extra cold with those cold fronts blowing up from the antarctic.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 29

Lots more purple but with a dash or two of blue. We had a really nice day on Monday. It was more like spring weather than winter. I'm not complaining though. I got all of my washing dry and managed to go for a nice long walk in the sunshine!

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 28

Lots and lots of purple means lots and lots of cool/cold weather.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 27

Back to lots and lots of light purple this week. I think, at this rate of consumption, I may need to purchase some more yarn in this colour.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 26

We're exactly half way through the year! I am so glad that I didn't keep going with this c2c blanket. By that I mean increasing it. It's HUGE already. It would never fit my bed properly if I had kept going. Even now it is probably too big!

This past week we have had some super cold air coming up from the Antarctic which made for a very, very cold few days last weekend. We are expecting similar weather this weekend. Let's hope that means I get to do some more dark blue and purple rows.

Any way, this is what week 26 looks like:

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 25

As you can see there is still A LOT of light purple but we did have some really cold days. Thank goodness for heaters is all I can say. The weather bureau called it an arctic blast. I have to agree with them brrrr it was very cold! 

Issy enjoyed snuggling under the blanket while I crocheted.

It was so cold that we had hail and sleet yesterday afternoon. Sadly, there was no snow for us. We're not up high enough for that. The temperature did drop to 1.7 °C (35.06°F) when the cold front & hail arrived.

Brodie and I were out when in that blast and hail. It made the road very, slippery and poor Brodz slipped getting out of the car when we got to the supermarket.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 24

Yay I was finally able to crochet a row other than light purple! Only one row mind you but hey it broke up ALL of that solid purple. I just wish there were a few more rows of other colours thrown in to the mix.

I was 0.4C off doing a blue row today. Oh well. Maybe next week.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 23

Far out, Brussel sprout! I know I love purple but gosh I so want to crochet another colour. It's been nothing but this colour for over two weeks! Please let the temperature go over 16°C or stay around 11°C or even less. I WANT another colour! Who would have thought I would ever get annoyed with crocheting ONE colour? I certainly never did. Anyway, here's what the blanket looks like now.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 22

Lots and lots of purple this week! I love purple, I really love purple, but wow there are way too many rows of this colour happening right now. I wish the temperature would either creep up a couple of degrees or maybe even drop a further degree or two just to add a different colour to break all the purple up!

I do believe that this blanket may be too big for my bed.

And it looks like today will be another purple day! I think I might need to make an adjustment to my temperature scale.

Missy Issy has decided she really likes this blanket.
Maybe this means she will lay on the bed more often once it's completed.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 21

Even though we have had some really cold weather lately we have also had some unusually warm nights. Especially for this time of year. In fact we had temperatures in the 20's  the other night. And since my blanket is based on the highest temperature for the day I've had to crochet some green rows even though cold fronts have come through and made the daytime temperatures very, very cold. Hence the green rows. The weather bureau has stated that we wont be getting many temperatures in the 20°C's range for quite a while.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 20

I Started decreasing the rows at the end of last week. It took me a while to get my head around the fact that I was decreasing now and not increasing. After all I was increasing each row for almost 4 and a half months. It's looking great though. I still love the random rows of colour.